2025 Silly Season

Keshav said:

Well - for those who cling to the easy comfort of middle class conformity and the tribal vacuum of socially acceptable western conventionalities - it’s easy to understand why they get disturbed by the idea of the road less traveled. I suppose it can seem threatening when someone with wealth and privilege that most people aspire to, turns their back on materialistic values, because the average person rarely steps outside their comfort zone to question their entrenched imperatives. It’s so much easier to just go along with the rest of the sheep.

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Keshav said:

to not spend their entire existence "staring down the barrel of a normal life".

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Keshav said:

BTW - I apologize if that came off as snooty or elitist. The decisions people make to live the life of their choice that makes them truly happy, are ones that largely serve the general order of things. Not everyone can, or even wants to be Hemmingway or Thor Heyerdahl or Sid Vicious. I've known guys who gave up high paying jobs in finance to take up landscaping, or working as a sous chef, or a dog trainer because that was what made them feel fulfilled.

Many of the "fellow travelers" I met while living in India, fell into the category of "those that seek, but rarely find". Many were deluded and never stopped seeing life through rose tinted glasses. But I always give them credit for at least breaking away from the mainstream to take risks, to not spend their entire existence "staring down the barrel of a normal life" (Yes it is a misquote from the Police song".

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p4p1 said:

but I also know that I am not particularly happy.

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Keshav said:

I spent time in Lahore about 10 years ago. It is considered the safest place for Western travelers in Pakistan. In the span of two weeks, there were three separate bombings of different mosques. Numerous journalists have disappeared in Pakistan. Politicians are regularly gunned down in the street by their opposition. The cities are hairy enough, but once you get out into the countryside and up in the mountains, It really is the Wild Wild West. The air pollution in small towns and big cities is beyond what you can conceive of. Sanitation-wise Pakistan is a century behind even India. Iran and Iraq have citizenry that are largely opposed to government policy. Many people from those countries would love to live anywhere with Western values. Pakistanis on the whole have a much lower level of education and are very supportive of any given regime, any one of which is very anti-American. God help you if you get sick there. Confident medical care is practically nonexistent. And natural disasters are a regular feature. If you went to a newsstand you could probably find a copy of earthquake of the month magazine.

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Sennas_Caress said:

30 years ago, it was safe to share a meal and a cuppa with the Pashto and their Talib friends... How time flies....

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mikesbytes said:

A good destination for him would be Goa

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p4p1 said:

I live the 'normal life' and existence, at least at the moment due to multiple factors some within and some outside of my control, existence is the right word for what I feel I am doing right now. Moving to India, or another country to seek meaning or whatever is not something I would do and I have scarified and worked hard(ish) to get what little I have, which is more than a lot of people in the world, but I also know that I am not particularly happy.

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Keshav said:

LOL - Depending on how serious Axel is, you might be right on the nose. Been to Goa. Didn't care for it. A lot of hippies not really looking for any kind of "enlightenment" or self-knowledge, but rather a lot of feckless, unwashed sadhu wannabees, who know nothing of the local culture, never learn the language, going to raves and getting stoned on the beach. The locals loathe them. The tourist population is something like 70% Israeli kids who come there to unwind after doing mandatory military service, hoping to blot out the memory of 32 months doing work many of them find politically distasteful.

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